1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the use of wireless electronic devices, and more particularly to enabling a wireless electronic device to print information stored on the device via a wide area computer network such as the Internet.
2. Discussion of the Background
Wireless mobile electronic devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smart phones are electronic tools which enable users to connect to the Internet in order to access the wealth of information provided by the Internet. Users can conduct business transactions or utilize the Internet as a personal tool or resource. More particularly, users can surf the web, send and receive email, shop online, and even dispense negotiable instruments using wireless handheld devices.
In order to provide these functions, many wireless mobile electronic devices are capable of storing, processing, and displaying a substantial amount of information useful to the user. In many circumstances, this electronic information is useful to the user in a printed tangible form. However, in order to print information from the wireless devices, the wireless devices, in many cases, require a “wired” connection to a printer.
The inventor has realized that some wireless devices can function as a facsimile machine and send faxes via the public switched telephone network. However, in order to send information obtained from the Internet to a printer, two different connections are required. First, a connection must be made to the user's Internet service provider (ISP) in order to obtain the content the user wishes to print. A second connection via the public switched telephone network is required in order to send the facsimile data to a remote facsimile.
Other wireless devices are configured to transmit information to computer networks using infrared technology to connect to a local area network (LAN). However, transmissions using infrared technology and radio frequency (RF) signals have a limited transmission range when used as a LAN. Thus, the wireless devices must be proximate to a node of the LAN which is configured to receive the infrared or RF transmissions in order to transmit the information to be printed.